Bebe Rexha Explains the Inspiration Behind New Single ‘Not 20 Anymore’

Bebe Rexha recently celebrated her 30th birthday, releasing her appropriately titled new single, “Not 20 Anymore,” to mark the occasion.

The song is a celebration of age, with Rexha proclaiming in its lyrics that she knows what she wants and who she is now more than ever.

“It’s about me kind of turning 30 and loving the skin that I’m in, and loving who I am,” Rexha told to PopCulture.com. “And in the lyrics of the song, I say, don’t make me feel insecure. I’m 30 now, but I’m a better lover. I love myself more, I know what I want, and beauty is more than a number.”

The New York native explained that she hopes the track can help challenge the concept of aging in the music industry, which is markedly different for men and women.

“When guys turn 35, they’re sexy,” Rexha pointed out. “When we turn 30, we’re old. We’re hags. And that’s f—ed up. Absolutely not. When I was 20 years old, I didn’t know what the f— I was doing with my life. Now I can f—ing do whatever I want, go wherever I want.”

“Not 20 Anymore” is Rexha’s first new music since her debut album, 2018’s Expectations, with the singer sharing that a follow-up project is on its way likely sometime next year.

“The album is a lot more rock,” she revealed. “It’s really cool. It’s about just being unapologetic.”

Along with promoting empowering themes in her music, Rexha makes sure to live out those principles in her life. One of the ways she does this is through her Women in Harmony initiative, which she started in 2018 as a way to give female creatives in the music industry a place to connect and share experiences.

“I was in the studio, and I was with another songwriter who’s a female. I was talking to her and I said, ‘I wish I would have had another female to talk to in the industry while I was kind of in the industry and trying to figure it out, so that I could just have a role model or somebody.’ I feel like I never really could talk to anybody,” she reflected. “And I came up with this idea of having an environment where I let all female creatives come and just kind of be in an environment, feed them delicious food, and give them delicious drinks, and just have a safe environment where they could talk about things that they’ve gone through, exchange numbers, maybe write songs.”

“But just to support the women, because I feel like a lot of times in the music industry as well, women are told to kind of go against each other,” she added. “And I think if you’re in the room with other females, you see that they’re just like you. And I want us to celebrate each other.”

Photo Credit: Getty / Steve Jennings